Bail jumping £1million fraudster convinced flying instructor to let him out in France
A FRAUDSTER out on bail and awaiting sentencing fled the UK by booking a flying lesson and persuading the instructor to drop him off in France.
Jamie Colwell formed his escape plan after he was convicted with his father, Brian, of a £1million VAT scam.
He hired a third party to drive his father to France, via Dover, in his new Porsche Cayenne. The driver brought back Brian Colwell’s passport for Jamie to use, as his had been confiscated under bail conditions.
Jamie then booked a flying lesson in Kent in his father’s name and convinced the instructor to land in the Pas-de-calais region and let him out.
He met up with his father and they fled to Malaga in Spain. They hired the same third party to drive a rental van with their furniture to the Costa del Sol. Officials from HMRC began an investigation after the defendants failed to appear at Bournemouth Crown Court in January for sentencing.
HMRC was able to track the movements of the rental van to an address in southern Spain, and the father and son were arrested there in May and extradited back to the UK to be sentenced.
Jamie Colwell, 51, was jailed for five years and three months and his father, 74, for two years and eight months for the original scam. Both men were given an additional six months after admitting breaches of bail. The judge, Jonathan Fuller, told them: “You were at large for five months. You deliberately flouted bail conditions in the way that’s been described.”
The Colwells were bogus property developers behind a house building scam – which generated almost £1million in VAT repayments to which neither man was entitled – by lying about building £14 million worth of new properties. Following an investigation by HMRC, it was established that the homes had never, in fact, been built.
The proceeds of the scam went on a series of luxury purchases. Jamie Colwell rented a £2.8million seafront property at Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset, and bought a speedboat and highperformance cars.
He admitted two counts of fraud to obtain payment of VAT credit, while his father pleaded guilty to one count of acquiring criminal property.